Permalink vs slug
People search both. They are the same job on most sites. The slug is season-cast-iron-skillet. The permalink is https://yoursite.com/season-cast-iron-skillet (or that slug under a folder). This page is for anyone whose CMS says “permalink” instead of “slug”.
For the rules behind hyphens, length, and stuffing, use the SEO-friendly URL generator. For platform-specific clicks after you copy, use the WordPress slug generator or the Shopify slug generator. For a column of titles, use the bulk slug generator.
What makes a permalink SEO-friendly
Short. Words a person would say. Hyphens, not underscores. No dates unless the page is actually about a year. The topic once, not three times. Google has treated hyphens as separators for a long time. That is labeling, not a ranking trick. A messy permalink still ranks if the article is good. A clean one just does not get in the way.
Do not pack “best-best-seo-permalink-generator-2026” into a blog post about skillets. The permalink should match the page, not this tool’s name.
Changing a permalink later
Every old permalink you abandon needs a 301. Newsletters, backlinks, and printed URLs do not update themselves. If the page already has links, think twice before renaming it for taste.